Mind of Keifus

Mad Dog/Vulture, Ghost Bear

2011-10-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

Nearly a year ago I was working on this miniature. I guess taking a year to get around to finishing it isn't too long. The camo for this one is kind of subtle.

Cerberus, 1st Donegal Jaegers

2011-10-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

I wanted to do something that was a bit more technically difficult than the red paint scheme of the 2nd Sword of Light, or even the Word of Blake faded schemes I had done. Just something different and more of a challenge. So, I looked through Camospecs for something that would catch my eye and settled on the Jaegers units of the Lyran forces. Since Fanjoy did a Cerberus in yellow for the 1st Coventry Jaegers, figured I'd choose a different unit. So, here's my version in blue.

Mad Dog (Vulture), Hell's Horses

2011-09-25T10:26:00.001-04:00

Another item of trade bait from Mr. Jones, this one originated from our friend Deus who modified this miniature to be one of the variants (A?). Since I have a Thunder Stallion and a couple of Ishtar Fire Support Vehicles, sounded like some flame paint schemes were in order.

There are a couple of new trees I used for this shot. Decided to do a better job basing the tree hexes for our games. Another side project...

I've been doing a lot of painting lately. Not sure what's going on there, but it must be that I've had a bit more free time on my hands, though I've no idea where that "free time" came from...

Kell Hounds Hunchback

2011-09-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

And here's a Kell Hounds Hunchback, one of the opposing force to the 2nd Sword of Light miniatures being painted.

2nd Sword of Light Hunchback

2011-09-23T20:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, one might be asking why I'm painting up a bunch of 2nd Sword of Light miniatures. Is it because I grew bored of the 52nd Shadow, Word of Blake painting (well, yes... but...)? Our Battletech gaming group has begun a new campaign based on a story related to the 2nd Sword of Light and the Kell Hounds circa about 3025. Now, someone much more learned in Battletech's story line would have to explain this, and perhaps in a comment someone could enlighten me. But, seeing as my primary responsibility for our gaming group is making things pretty, I don't worry much about the "whys" just the paint.

So, here's a Hunchback for the afore mentioned campaign. I have a Kell Hounds one as well, but that will be in a following post. I want to give a shout out to Mr. Jones for supplying the "trade bait" Hunchbacks. I have a Quickdraw and a Jenner as well from Mr. Jones for this campaign, but they're still being "prettied up".

Finish of work: Step 4: 2nd Sword of Light Jagermech

2011-09-17T21:43:00.001-04:00

The last step are the details. Painting in insignia, cockpit, dry brushing the barrels of the guns, clear matte finish and a little flock for the base.

Glass Spider, Ghost Bear, forest camo

2011-09-17T21:40:00.000-04:00

Since I've sold off my Snow Raven Glass Spider, I had to paint a replacement. I wanted to do something a bit different for the camo this go around...

The big flat top of the dish begged for an insignia painted on it.

Work in Progress: Step 3: 2nd Sword of Light Jagermech

2011-09-11T19:14:00.000-04:00

Got a bit further on this one. Using some thinned orange, highlighted the panels. Since these are so small (heck, the whole mini is only a couple of inches tall), just did one edge of the panels, always picking the same side. Painted the cockpit and gun barrles black in preparation for their final painting. Painted the ground a dark brown, also in preparation for final paint. Next to work on the details...

Firestorm Armada... well... sort of...

2011-09-05T11:19:00.002-04:00

It's been a productive Labor Day weekend with lots of painting being done and projects getting completed. Some of what I've been working on are some Battlestar Galactica-esque miniatures for a custom fleet for Firestorm Armada. Also worked on some asteroids too, though the ones pictured below are actually ones I finished a while back. I have a batch of five more such asteroids and a planet I'm working on too. Better get what I can done now, because it's back to work tomorrow!

Need to work on those bay "lights" and repaint them. Really looks bad in the photo.

Work in Progress: Step 2: Jagermech, 2nd Sword of Light

2011-09-04T16:07:00.001-04:00

After the wash dries, go in and paint the panels. For some of the really fine stuff, a light dry brush will work; if the panel's big enough, just paint it in. I'm using a Americana cadmium red. I did only the left side of the miniature, to show the difference as it can be kind of subtle.

Well, obviously, I'm going to move on to getting the other half done. After that, I'll work on highlighting.

Work In Progress: Step 1: Jagermech, 2nd Sword of Light

2011-09-04T15:04:00.000-04:00

I wanted to document progress on painting these Sword of Light miniatures. They're really pretty simple, and if you take your time, I think they come out looking pretty sharp. In a prior post, I noted that one of the mechs for our campaign was a Jagermech. I did a prior post with shots of a work in progress for a Jagermech, but that centered more on the modification of the miniature. This time, I'll focus more on paint, forgoing the stripping of some felt-like-a-milimeter thick paint from this used mini and the prepping for the base...

So, started with Army Painter Red primer. And then used a dark brown wash (50/50 paint/water) that I painted in every panel line. You can tell by the picture, I wasn't super careful: more interested in making sure there was dark brown in all the lines. The excess paint that wasn't in the lines will be covered in the next step.

Charger, House Kurita, 2nd Sword of Light

2011-09-04T10:33:00.002-04:00

And here's the Charger:

Cicada, House Kurita, 2nd Sword of Light

2011-09-04T10:32:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we started a new campaign based in 3025, so going back to the "old school" Battletech roots. I typically get the miniatures for the units I will be using and then paint them appropriately. I have a Cicada and a Jagermech (I mustn't like armor much...). Jagermech is still "under construction", so to speak, but I did finish the Cicada. Also, in another post, I'll have the Charger (yes, we have the assault mech with 5, count 'em, 5 small lasers...). I really think the new campaign will be great fun, the first battle was certainly, um, ... amusing...

Anyway, here's the Cicada:

The river

2011-07-10T13:49:00.002-04:00

Here's the river from our July 9, 2011 game:

Experimenting with Hills

2011-07-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

One of the things I've not liked about Battletech is the terrain. Okay, it's decoration, but I like for the game to look "pretty." Back in the 80's, it was map sheets and cardboard stand up "minatures." Liked the game, but "ew...". In the early 90's a group of us made lots of 1" tall, hex shaped "building blocks" that were colored that we could stack up and it gave a 3 dimensional view. Great for line of sight determinations, but still pretty plain. Then there's the geohex product. A bit prettier and I could build trees and such, but still has that pixelated 80's feel to it. I wanted something that looked more like the traditional table top wargames and their terrain, but still retained the playability of the hexes. Perhaps it's a fool's errand...

Anyway, after a game yesterday where we used some new, test terrain elements (a bridge over a 4 hex wide river), I got a better feel for using the miniatures on the terrain, then started to play with foam and flocking material. I came up with the hill below:

Looks much better, but it has drawbacks. It's not modular, so you're kind of stuck with whatever shape it is. I can envision making some pretty interesting, multi-level hills like this, but each would be it's own stand alone piece.

Don't know what to do... maybe I'll keep playing around with it...

Ghost Bear Elementals

2011-06-01T20:03:00.000-04:00

Bought these Mechwarrior: Dark Age Elementals (courtesy of BV Traders) and re-mounted them on cast resin bases. They are normally three Elementals to one click base. I have some others that I did in a desert camo last year, but I left them in their three Elementals per base configuration. Not too bad for a quick and dirty paint job.

Word of Blake Djinn Battle Armor

2011-06-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

Similar to the aerospace fighters, the battle armor was also primered red and painted using progressively thicker washes of black as I moved down the minis. The bases were bought resin "urban" bases that I carved out (via Dremel) to mount the battle armor minis and make them look like "one piece" (no seams between mini and the base).

Word of Blake Lucifer

2011-06-01T19:57:00.000-04:00

Another aerospace fighter for the Wobbies. I tried a different technique for the fade that worked easier than prior ones. Primered in red, then did progressively thicker washes of black as I moved towards the tail. Chalking might be easier (some say), but I've not been able to get it to work right. This method was actually pretty fast, though.

Word of Blake Corsair

2011-06-01T19:54:00.000-04:00

What do you do when your back is a problem and you can't do TOO much? Paint, of course!

Urbanmech, personal paint scheme

2011-05-14T19:27:00.000-04:00

Here's an urbanmech that's been collecting dust on my workbench for a while. Sorry if it's a bit blurry. It's the rotary autocannon version. I put a medium laser (as specified) in the torso, but painted it like it was clenched in teeth just as something different.

Maelstrom, personal paint scheme

2011-05-14T19:24:00.001-04:00

Same scheme as the King Crab. I've got a Hatchman (modified for the rotary autocannon version) and Grasshopper also done in this scheme, but I didn't like the pictures... too blurry. So, once I get good pictures of those, I'll post.

King Crab, personal paint scheme

2011-05-14T19:21:00.000-04:00

Here's a King Crab in an olive drab paint scheme. I was looking for something that was more utilitarian looking, though not so plain as to be boring. No specific unit... just looking for something different. Yellow for hands and around the "head", with brown for the hip and shoulder actuators.

Battlemaster, Word of Blake

2011-05-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

You know, looking at this now in a picture, I realize that there's some work I'd like to do, as opposed to leaving this as "done." Really need to highlight the ragdoll battle armor more. I did like the cockpit, which really can't be seen too well by the naked eye.

Thug, Word of Blake

2010-12-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

Here's one of my personal favorite mechs, the Thug. The old sculpt was weak, but the new sculpt, albiet not symmetrical, looks great. The only issue I have with it is the shoulders, which seemed too small to me, so they got resculpted. Looks like I may be working on either camo or this Word of Blake scheme for a while, though I'm going back to work on some terrain too.

Raptor II, Word of Blake

2010-12-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

And another Word of Blake mech...

Gurkha, Word of Blake

2010-12-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

And another WoB mech...

Ghost Bear Hunchback IIc

2010-11-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, no one likes a Hunchback IIc,... publically anyway. After all, who doesn't want to see two Ultra 20's each hit with two 20 point slugs?

Raptor II Project

2010-11-28T12:23:00.000-05:00

Did a lot more work to this base. I wanted something where the mech appeared to be running through a house, though it's hard to tell with all this white plastic!

Mad Dog/Vulture Project

2010-11-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been working on some things. Here's the beginnings of the Mad Dog I'm working on. It will be a forest camo Ghost Bear mech to go along with some others I've done.

Body of Work

2010-10-17T17:10:00.000-04:00

I've never been much of an "army" painter, but I also don't seem to do too many "one off" paint jobs either. Since I got back into painting a few years ago, much of what I painted was Battletech stuff. Sure, there's some Warhammer Orks, some odd-ball things (like the Confrontation Fire Elemental that I can't seem to finish, or my Organist...), and more recently my Sorylian fleet for Firestorm Armada, but over all, mostly Battletech. I was inspired to take some pictures of, well,... most everything. I didn't take pictures of my Iota Galaxy Jade Falcon Trianary nor my Lyran Guard company, one, because they wouldn't fit, and two, I'm not entirely proud of them. Those units were my "practice painting again after long absence" painting.

Many of these are actually in this blog somewhere, others are new (Thug, Avatar, Stinger, Wasp, Garm, Cauldron Born, and others). So, here they are... sorry for no fancy background. If there's something in particular to zoom in on, let me know.

The left half of the picture above are my Taurian units. Red Chausseurs, mostly.

Taurian, Red Chausseurs

Ghost Bears, Rho

Combine, Benjamin Regulars, with the Ghost Bear Rho Sullas (bottom right)

Alright, the Goliath shouldn't be in with the Kurita forces, but hey, I like quads.

Lords of the Battlefield Awesome

2010-09-18T13:17:00.000-04:00

Here's my entry for the most recent painting contest on Lords of the Battlefield. There was a request for close ups of the base, but as I mentioned in an earlier post this month, my good camera went kaput. So, I did the best I could.

Sorylian Fleet

2010-09-05T15:17:00.000-04:00

Here's the group shot of some of the fleet. Picture is a tiny bit blurry, but I think it looks okay. Couldn't quite fit everyone of the mini's into one shot, so here's half of them. I'm working on six escorts for this fleet too, but got somewhat distracted by the Aquan ships...

Aquan Battleship and Cruiser

2010-09-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been laid up with some medical problems, and it's put a serious damper on getting painting done. Add to that, my good camera died, so I'm using an older one. But, I did want to post this battleship and cruiser I did for Firestorm Armada. I still have my Sorylians: 1 battleship, 1 carrier, 3 cruisers, and 6 frigates, all just about done painting. They're in another post.

Anyhow, hope these pictures come out okay. Enjoy!

Sorylian Battleship (Firestorm Armada): mostly done

2010-08-03T19:58:00.000-04:00

I got this starter fleet for the Firestorm Armada game. I know. Not Battletech. But interesting stuff to paint. Figured I'd go with my take on what was on the cover of the box. It's not completely done, but is close. I have three cruisers in various stages of completion too, though the frigates have barely been touched.

Marik Militia Demolisher

2010-07-25T11:41:00.000-04:00

Here's something I just threw together...

What to do with old kids meal toys?

2010-07-25T11:38:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago, I saw my dog chewing on this round, plastic ball, and I thought to myself, "I could do something with that!" And as I pulled the kids meal toy from the dogs drooling maw, I noticed it did not escape it's experience unscathed. Undeterred, I figured I'd do something with it by making it into some kind of radar tower...

...there's some touch up to do, and then paint, but I figure you can see where I'm going with this.

FCL Myrmidon and the Bad Blogger

2010-07-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

Alirght. Being gone since March is probably not the best thing. Especially since the things in life that kept me from here was my job! I haven't gotten to paint or model anything much recently, though I did finish a couple of smaller projects. Here is a Fist City Lightning Myrimidon. I have another almost done, and two more waiting in the wings to paint, but they're all going to look basically like this one. There's a couple of other posts I will make here today, but I'll keep them separate so that they can be found in the archive easier.

Ravencon 2010 Minis

2010-03-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Well, the Rifleman IIC entry at LotB didn't win, but was a respectable showing! In any case, here is that mini, plus the Stone Rhino that is part of the units for the Ravencon 2010 game. Just a Warhammer IIC to finish up and they will all be done. Just in time since it's only a couple of weeks until Ravencon!

And pictures of just the Stone Rhino...

Elementals for Ravencon (Richmond, Virginia April 2010)

2010-02-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of a couple of Elementals for a force I'm painting for Ravencon in April. The Elementals were originally on Mech Warrior Dark Age "click" bases, so I popped them off, repainted them, and rebased them, and I think it worked out pretty well. I was charged with making some "desert camo"... well camo blotches are really too hard on something this small, but I was able to do a fade from dark brown to tan, which is the base for the mechs. Of course, mechs are bigger and camo blotches possible! I have one of those mechs in the finishing stages, but plan to have that in the miniature contest on LotB, so I'll post it sometime early March after the contest.

Marscon 2010: Williamsburg, Virginia

2010-02-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

Here's some pictures from a local convention: Marscon. The battle depicted is a Jade Falcon/Steel Viper match up. Wasn't Jade Falcon's day...

We also had a city battle that I skipped out on to hang out with other friends. I know, shame on me for not being the Battletech die-hard and sticking it out! I made the radio tower last year and somehow it always seems to make it into lots of different games... Anyhow, there's some card stock buildings I made using some designs from NC Tracker over at LotB (they're here): I used styrene sheets to glue the paper print outs to giving them some added durability and they look pretty good. I don't have nearly enough buildings, so many others were brought in!

Miniature Contest Submission

2010-01-17T12:41:00.000-05:00

Here's my winning submission for the miniature contest on LotB.

The cockpit and base I'm particularly proud of, given the work involved, but oddly, those two elements took far less time to paint and/or create than the highlighting of the panels and such for the miniature in general.

JA Baker inspired paint scheme

2010-01-05T21:28:00.000-05:00

Over on LotB (here), JA Baker posted a lance he called Nock Heavy Engineering Militia Gamma Lance painted in a scheme that I found very interesting. So, I did a quick paint job on a spare Spider (Basic Sculpt) I had lying about. Really like the red sash appearance lined in white on a blue background. He noted that he was going for Davion colors, and I think he was right on with it. I haven't painted any Davion units in quantity, mainly because I'm not fond of their paint schemes. But might could go for this one.

A little Hussar buddy for the WoB White Flame

2010-01-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

My brother got me a couple of mini's for Christmas, and this little Hussar was one of them. Since I was working on some Word of Blake stuff, and a Hussar fits right in with that group, figured I'd go ahead and add it to these WoB units I'm painting.

Ring in the New Year with a WoB White Flame

2010-01-01T19:52:00.000-05:00

Another project that's been languishing on my work table was this Word of Blake White Flame. Finally got around to finishing it off today. I likely built up the gumption to do it since, when we played last, it was a Word of Blake game with a White Flame in it. Incidentally, the White Flame died in a mine field, though not to the mines,... c'est la vie. Tried some non-metal metallic (NMM, or is that non-metallic metal... well, you get the point) painting on one of the gun barrels, but stuck with highlighting metallic paints elsewhere. Enough said for this one.

Cloud Cobra Blood Asp

2009-12-27T14:24:00.000-05:00

Well, with all of the festivities for Christmas, I did manage to find time for an amusing game of BTech yesterday: Word of Blake vs. Laio... on ice... with minefields... lots of "I've fallen and can't get up" going on. Pretty bad when you look at your fallen mech and think, "you know, laying down and not getting up might be my best option."

Anyhow, I did get time to get some pictures taken. The painting contest entries for Lords of the Battlefield were submitted, and I finally took some pictures of the Blood Asp. I think I've improved in my picture taking skill, so blurriness, over/under exposure, and poor lighting seem to be better. Still need to tweak some things though. Here's the Cloud Cobra Blood Asp.

Works in progress...

2009-12-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

I know... I've not posted anything for a bit. I've had a chance to work on and complete a couple of projects, but just haven't gotten them posted. Clan Cloud Cobra Blood Asp is nearing completion and is something I feel proud of compared to some of the work I've done recently. Hopefully will post by the week's end. Another is an entry for a painting contest at Lords of the Battlefield. That will be posted there first, and after the contest in January, will get posted here. Otherwise, I've got a couple of other miniatures in various stages of completion... they just weren't able to keep my attention, so working on other things. No shortage of things to paint!

I did respond to an innane discussion over on LotB around jumping tank designs... and if you just went "huh?" to the idea of a jumping tank, then you're above the mean on the old intellegence scales. If you want a laugh, head on over to LotB and look at the LotB Events and Campaigns --> Richmond event thread.

Plastic Unseen Warhammer

2009-11-29T17:19:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by someone over on Lords of the Battlefield who had lots of plastic unseens that he fixed up and painted. Since working in plastic for re-posing miniatures is far easier than with metal, I figured I could do something with one of the two plastic Warhammers that I received from "Mister Jones" (sorry, but Varney's impression of Indiana Jones' villians doesn't quite translate to the written form).

Fire Elemental, in progress...

2009-11-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

Still working on this Fire Elemental... and probably will be for a while to come! Got some of the highlights going on the armor. The neck and head of this mini has only a base coat of black. Figure I'd keep a log on this one too, just to relflect process. Sometime or another, I'll need to post pictures of the Unseen Warhammer project that I'm also working on. Significant repose of the mini and a pretty involved base should make it a challenge and hopefully a good final product!

Jagermech just about done

2009-11-22T17:40:00.000-05:00

Well, some on and off again work throughout the day has gotten me to this.

Jagermech Continued... and something new...

2009-11-22T09:50:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week, with not much time available for painting. At work late Thursday and Friday night, Scouts on Tuesday night (though it was cancelled unbeknownst to me, the Den Leader...),... didn't leave a lot of free time. But, started to paint in the camo blotches. Still have a ways to go. After the camo, then comes the details and highlighting.

However, I did get started on another, non-Battletech, miniature. It's been sitting around for a bit, but I got the gumption up to assemble and begin painting for it. It's a commission work that's already taken quite a bit of time to do,... and has a long ways to go. But I think it'll please the patron once completed. The tan is the basecoat for what will be eventually bone. The blue will also be much lighter than is shown in the final product, after heavy highlighting. Overall, the miniature will be fire (it's a fire elemental after all) with bone white, light blue, and deep reds. Hoepfully!

JagerMech in process of paint

2009-11-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

So.. much... block painting... I think my eyes are going cross. Or just going.

Anyhow, took a quick picture of where it is thus far. Which isn't far. Decided to go with a desert camo, but first got to paint all those panels! I like high contrast between panel lines and the panels themselves, and some like it a bit more subtle than that. Looking at this JagerMech now, I see a deranged, hand-less, oompa-loompa zombie. Man those are some short arms and legs,... or is it the huge body,... whichever. There's some serious parts out of proportion!

I'll keep up with the updates.

JagerMech Modifications

2009-11-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

A JagerMech is clearly not a sexy mech. It's blocky and probably envisioned to walk like Frankenstein from a bad "B" horror movie. Adding to that, the basic set sculpt of the mech has it standing like it's shut down, sitting in storage. So, the already ho hum looking mech is about as dynamic looking as ancient Egyptian statues. Well, maybe even less so.

I had already primered my JagerMech, but thought about it last night as I was going to sleep. Okay, that might seriously be a sign of dysfunction.... Anyhow, I figured I'd take the one I had and give it some life. Besides, if I screw up, what's the loss? Below are pictures of the modifications in order to outline how it was made.

First, all the parts. Chopped off the left leg at the knees, and both arms at the shoulders. Chopped part of the left leg's knee off, so it could bend backwards. When I checked the proposed position of the left leg, I saw that the toe would be underground, so the tip of the foot was chopped off too, at a panel line. Then I positions the body/right leg on a base with glue and generous amounts of green stuff.

Next, I pinned all the cut joints, filling in cracks with green stuff. I didn't put the toe on the left foot yet. I needed to build up the "ground" under the left leg so I could make sure the toe was positioned well. The arms I tilted outward a bit and pointed them forward, to give the impression the mech was advancing. Sorry for the second picture being dark, but it should show the foot in better detail.

Then I tackled the left foot and base. Built up the "ground" under the left foot with green stuff, then positions the toe in the proper position. Glued everything in place. Second picture is a close up of that toe/foot/ground joining.

Finally, I finished off the base. Not much to say here. Just used green stuff to cover the rest of the base, and glued on some rocks of different sizes. Trimmed off the excess green stuff from the joints.

And as I looked at the pictures, realized the small barrels are supposed to be on top of the arms, not the bottom. Swapped the arms around. After all of this, now it's primer touch ups and painting! I'll post the final product, once I figure out how I want to paint it.

Pictures Redone...

2009-11-08T08:52:00.000-05:00

After seeing the other pictures of these two posted, I really didn't like the pictures. So, I made some changes and tried to follow some advice on lighting. Wasn't too worried about the background, just that the pictures' lighting was okay. Hopefully these are an improvement.

Snow Raven Glass Spider

2009-11-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

Not much to say here, other than I just wanted to paint something purple, and this Snow Raven scheme fit the bill. Though, I really want to get back to some of the Benjamin Regulars stuff...

Since I'm on a Roll... Taurian Goliath

2009-11-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I've always envisioned the Taurian Concordant forces to be a bit on the old school side, using older machines and not the cutting edge. Also, I kind of like quad 'mechs, so I got this original, albiet used, Goliath. Needed a fair amount of work. A number of details, like the scale armor and a couple of panel lines were literally bashed out of it and needed some attention. Also, one of the legs was actually sheared off (luckily, it was a clean break). After an hour or so of work, the mini was restored, so to speak, then needed paint. At home on a rainy day, so went ahead and painted it up.

Some time or another, I need to take a group shot of this Red Chausseurs unit I've been painting off and on for a year or so. Company of 'mechs, a bit more than that in vehicles, some battle armor, and the two drop ships. But not immediately. Time to work on a Benjamin Regulars Kurita unit... when I get time.

Fist City Lightning Stingray

2009-10-28T20:13:00.000-04:00

Well, starting to feel better in the day two of illness. Again, needed a break from daytime television, though I did spend a few hours telecommuting. But, in between all that, went to work on a Stingray that I needed to paint and get ready for decals. Then I thought it would be fun just to paint the checkers, instead of painting the wings gray and letting a friend of mine decal them.

Okay, wasn't as much fun as I thought, but I can still paint the details if needs be. While I was at it, I added some kill markings, too. Figured lightning bolts would be appropriate. Hopefully, Deus will approve.

Well, one down,... one to go!

Work in progress... after a year or so?

2009-10-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've had this little Fire Moth for a long while now. I finished painting the camo pattern and the Ghost Bear head on it several months or more ago. Always had the intention of going back and painting those odd wings on the back as moth wings, but never really got around to it.

But today I've been home sick and between hacking up a lung, decided to paint a bit since there is only but so much day time television a human can endure (anyone seen "Mr. Mom"? ...then you get my point). Anyhow, I set about painting those wings, so looked up "Moth" in my Google bar and before long, I had many (MANY) different examples. I settled on a moth from Southeast Asia called an Atticus Atlas (you can see one here: http://www.cirrusimage.com/Moths_Atlas.htm).

I'm not done with this one, but perhaps some month in the future I'll get the gumption to pretty up the base and correct a few small imperfections in the paint. Ah, well...

Leopard Dropship

2009-10-25T11:20:00.000-04:00

The Leopard Dropship that I was working on,... now mostly complete.

Word of Blake Lightray

2009-10-18T19:03:00.000-04:00

Got inspired to do a faded scheme, practicing wet brushing to get the desired effect. I tried the "chalking" technique in past miniatures, but never could get it to come out as well as good old fashioned wet brushing. Ah, well. Hadn't posted things for a while, so figured I'd post this. I've got a Leopard dropship (mapscale) that I'm working on... plus "friends" for this piece as well.

Where did I go to this summer anyway?

2009-08-30T11:20:00.001-04:00

It's clearly been one of those summers where extracirricular means doing stuff with the family and not hobbies! Anyway, I was working on a couple of projects and they took some time. Recently, I got a Battlemaster, that I nearly forgot I ordered. I intended to paint it in a scheme that is not represented (i.e.: no one, to my knowledge, has painted it). So, I went with O'Gordon's Rifles:

O'Gordon's Rifles
"O’Gordon’s Rifles uses a blue two-tone color scheme, with navy blue coloring all ’Mechs below the waistline and sky blue for the arms, upper torso, and head. Hand actuators are uniformly painted flat black. Black striping around the right forearm of O’Gordon units also denotes the rank of the MechWarrior; no striping represents MechWarriors, one stripe indicates lance commanders, two identifies company commanders, and three signifies a battalion commander (O’Gordon’s BattleMaster, the regimental command unit, paints its entire right forearm black). The O’Gordon’s insignia appears on the upper left torso and the right hip of all O’Gordon’s Mechs." (from Camospecs.com)

So, here's my take on it:

But, as I was looking at this, I realized that I had another Battlemaster I did a year and a half ago in a Kurita, Benjamin Regulars paint scheme. So, here's a comparison of where I've been and where I've got to:

Anyhow, at least I accomplished something!

Wow... I've been busy...

2009-06-07T20:17:00.001-04:00

...but not in painting or doing anything Battletech related! Well, getting ready for a game this upcoming Saturday (6/13/2009), and it was decided for us to bring two mechs, custom designed, with advanced tech only. The first mech being 2,000 (battle value 2), and the second 3,000 (battle value 2). So, spent some time during a sleepless night, when I should've been resting for the next day's work.

So, I'm going with my modified Marauder with twin rotary autocannon 5's, ER large laser, and two ER medium lasers. Nice solid design... probably fall prey to some Clan mech design.

And the second line is a 100 ton quad Clan design: Gauss Rifle, 3 large pulse lasers, 5 ER medium lasers.

We'll see how they fair.

Then there's Flames of War, which has caught my interest. I think it's the desire to work on historical miniatures from WWII, one of my favorite historical periods. Don't have too much free time, so it might be an odd balancing act for tabletop wargaming!

Saturday Night Game, 5/23/2009

2009-05-24T08:44:00.001-04:00

The board for 5/23/2009 game

A couple of us (Jones and Chuck) got together last night for a CBT game. A river and road running through a forest and 30,000 battle value of machines of war on each side. J ones and I were on one side, Chuck the other. We had to cross the river, so in the first round my Battlemaster steps into the level one depth water. Fails the pilot check and falls. Takes minor damage to his center torso, which is successfully breached, destroying the engine and gyro. Sometimes you're the windshield, but last night, I was the bug... but on the plus side, at least he didn't get hit for any other damage the rest of the game.

By round 3 or 4, Jones left the game after all of his mechs were destroyed (one to a head hit, but the rest were cored). Chuck and I called the game a few rounds later when I lost two others: a head hit to a Goliath that was swarmed with Elementals and an ammo explosion to the Atlas. Left me with an Awesome which was in pretty good shape, and an Emporer (not so much) and an Axeman (on his last leg, literally). Only Chuck's King Crab was truly destroyed, though two Alacorns were gun emplacements (one still quite effective, I might add) and a Nova Cat was down due to a destroyed gryo.

My 15,000 BV2 Force

All in all, it was a good game with some points of amusement!

Painting Guide, Step 2: FCL Demolisher

2009-05-22T21:59:00.000-04:00

Now it's time for "dry brushing". This is a very simple technique where you take a brush, usually a large one like a #3, dip it into paint and brush off most of it and then brush lightly over the mini, basically leaving paint behind, but not in the grooves and lines of the mini. I used Folk Art Silver for dry brushing over the navy blue. That's a deceptively simple explanation, but it takes a bit of practice. The common mistake is not brushing out most of the paint, too the point where the paint seems dry. Another is not washing your brush out fairly frequently (and ensuring it's dry before putting paint to the brush), which has a tendency to destroy perfectly good paint brushes. Yet another is using too much force: you should lightly brush the paint over the mini, and you'll have to do it repeatedly in order to get good coverage. If done correctly, you will find that the base coat from step one will be clearly visible in those cracks and lines. Inevitably, you'll get some paint in some of those lines (and I did too when I did these).

The fix is simple enough. Using the color used in the initial base coat, in this case the Navy blue, mix a 50/50 mix of water and the blue. You won't need much, just a drop of water and of the blue, mixed well together. Then take a fine tip brush (something like a 10/0 brush or finer), put a little bit of the watered down paint on the brush and carefully paint a little bit of it into the line you accidently covered. You'll find that the paint, being so thin, will naturally go into that groove or line. Also, the watered down paint won't tend to obscure the new layer of paint (in this case, silver). This is, in effect, a "wash": thinned down paint that is "washed" over a surface to get into those little grooves and cracks.

Another thing to note is about the order of putting paint on the mini. I chose the silver next because I knew I would, in the dry brushing process, get a little bit over the brown. That's okay, because in the next step when I do the white (over the brown, see the first step), the white paint will cover the silver. I will not be dry brushing the white over the brown.

Finally, you will notice that the silver over the navy blue does not completely cover the blue, even on those surfaces where there are no cracks or grooves for the blue to show through. In effect, the silver blended with the navy blue underneath to give a more metallic blue sort of look. With some other techniques, which would be best for a more advanced lesson, I could effectively blend the silver over the blue to get a faded look. If you look closely at the Jenner IIC (from the FCL post), you'll notice that the silver stands out more on the edges than in the center of different panels, slowly going from bright silver on the edge to a more dulled appearance in the center. Same is true for the white, though it's harder to see in the pictures (a little bit of over exposure tends to obscure that kind of detail in white). I said at the beginning of this series of posts that I was going to keep it simple to show that with basic techniques, you can make a good looking mini, even as a beginner. Hopefully, this goal will be achieved!

Painting Guide, Step 1: FCL Demolisher

2009-05-22T16:47:00.001-04:00

Okay, so a friend asked if I could post some instructions or tips for painting. First, let me say that there are a number of others who paint better than I do,... which is not necessarily to say I paint poorly. Second, there are plenty of places where one could get tips, and I've read through (or viewed videos on) some of them. Sometimes these tips help, sometimes... well... not so much. I'm writing this from a beginner's point of view, and for this project, certain techniques will be mentioned, some easier to do, some harder. Overall, my plan for this series of posts is for beginners to get a good looking end product, without a bunch of advanced techniques which may take a long time to practice to get any good at. I'm going to skip prepping the miniature, sanding off the rough spots and flashing, and priming the mini. I use a brush on gray primer on the mini's I paint... simple preference. I presume that the mini is prepped and primered.

Fist City Lightning. For vehicles, my friend Deus (who is the final arbiter on the paint scheme), notes that vehicles are a gun metal blue (specifically, Vallejo) with white left and right sides with gray checker patterns on the white. Overall, a good scheme to work with to show different techniques. And then you look at this picture, which is the first in this series of posts, which is supposed to demonstrate painting this scheme... and you see something poorly painted blue and brown wondering, "Hey, isn't that supposed to be white and gun metal blue?" It will be. Be patient.

This initial coat of paint is basically a watered down Navy Blue (from Folk Art) and watered down Dark Chocolate (from Americana). The paint is thinned a little bit with water so that the paint flows evenly into the groves and lines within the mini where I want the grooves and lines Navy Blue or Brown. When I painted the other FCL minis shown in this blog, the white areas had that Navy Blue for the panel lines, which I think is too dark and doesn't quite go with the white. So, I'm trying something a bit different to improve the paint scheme (I guess art does take some experimentation!). At this step, I really don't care if the paint is super even... just so long as there's paint in all grooves. If I was painting a yellow mini, I might paint it with base coat of orange. If it were an ultramarine blue, probably a navy blue base coat. In general, the base coat is a much darker shade of the desired end color. Obviously this is easier if the entire miniature is the same color, which is not the case in this example, and is not the case with fantasy miniatures and the like.

As a final note, I did not mount the turrets, because I want them to be moveable. In terms of the CBT game, it does matter which direction the turret is facing, so leaving it free makes sense. In this case, the turrets are such that they'll sit nicely (and fairly securely) as designed. In other cases, I've used rare earth magnets to leave the turrets moveable, but allow them to be more secure.

Well, that's it for this post. I'll see if I can get some more stuff up about this project over this Memorial Day weekend! Any questions about this, leave a comment, and I'll answer.

Taurian Tanks

2009-05-15T17:17:00.001-04:00

Oh, and here are some of the other tanks. Still have a couple of Schrek PPC carriers to complete...

Flames

2009-05-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

I can't help but think of the movie "Cars" and the low rider (Ramone) suggesting ghost flames for the minivan. You can tell I've got kids...

Anyhow, I took pictures of the process for a couple of Saladins I'm doing for a Taurian Red Chausseurs unit. It's kind of a neat process, particularly when I stopped at each step and took a picture. So, here they are:

FCL Fireball

2009-05-14T13:55:00.001-04:00

The FCL's Fireball, piloted by "Doobie's Newbie", Arter Hawkwing.

FCL Wraith

2009-05-14T13:53:00.001-04:00

The FCL's Wraith, piloted by Yuriko Tomigachi. Well, we're an ethnically diverse group!

FCL Jenner IIC

2009-05-14T13:50:00.000-04:00

The FCL has another Clan mech, this Jenner IIC commanded by Valeri Stravinsky. At least the name is better than Doobleheime!

FCL Black Lanner

2009-05-14T13:47:00.001-04:00

The Black Lanner is piloted by the lance commander, Lars "Doobie" Doobleheime. No, I didn't pick the name.

Fist City Lightning

2009-05-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

This is a scout lance within the Fist City Lightning mercenary unit that us Richmond, VA CBT players have been playing with for some time. I chose to be the scout lance, mainly because I prefer speed to size. I didn't get to chose the paint scheme nor the units, but I liked both of them. I'll have separate posts for each member of the unit. I've decided to name them the Crazy Eight Balls. There's a back story to the name, but that'll wait for another time.

Heavy Woods

2009-05-11T17:29:00.001-04:00

Okay, so heavy woods. Here's how I build them.

1.) Take a two inch (50mm) economy hex base (Gale Force 9) and two trees (pines work best as they leave more space on the hex for miniatures). Glue the trees to the far extremes of the hex base as shown. You'll need to clip the edges of the trees' bases.

2.) Flock the trees with some clump foliage. Dark green makes sense for pines. If you went with some other kind of tree, you could go autumn or a lighter green. Wait for it to dry. I use thick CA glue for the tree flocking, and it dries within 30 minutes.

3.) Flock the base. I usually apply white glue all over the base, including the bases of the trees. Then I put light green static grass on it. Wait for it to dry, which, with white glue, will take a while.

4.) Spray the whole thing liberally with spray on scenic cement. This will hold everything together and keep the little bits of flocking and grass in place.

And that's it. Pretty simple. And if you do it in an assembly line fashion, you can complete several at a time. In one sitting I can easily complete 6 or 7 of them in about an hour, not including time for glue to dry. The space in between the trees are large enough for standard CBT miniatures, even the oversized ones. It's clearly not big enough for the Mech Warrior Dark Age stuff. These can also be used for other miniature wargames, like Warhammer and such.

Terrain

2009-05-10T15:28:00.001-04:00

So, where to start? One of the challenges I ran into was in terrain. I could use the miniatures rules for CBT (Classic Battletech, as opposed to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), but then there were the rulers and what not. But, if I stuck to hexes, well that had problems too. I wanted something that looked pretty, but maintained the original playability of the game.

To overcome the playability versus attractiveness issue, I needed something to play on. That's where the Battlehex product from Talon Games came in. Unfortunately, they discontinued this product some time ago, but there are ways around that. The 2" hexes were large enough to do some interesting things. Then I needed hex bases on which to put the terrain, so that everything adhered to the hex basis of the rules. That's where these inexpensive 2" (50mm) hex bases from Gale Force 9 came in. I could use just one hex, or glue bunches of them together for different things. Then Woodland Scenics provided the flocking, trees, roads (in the form of N-scale rail beds) and other terrain features desired.

In terms of the rules for trees in CBT, there are "light woods" and "heavy woods". So, how to differentiate between the two became an issue. One simply resolved by including two trees on one hex base for "heavy woods", while the one tree versions were "light woods". "Rough" terrain became hexes with fallen trees in them, or rocks, or whatever would look like "rough" terrain. Trees could even be added to "road" hexes to allow for that combination, which allows for hovercraft to be in the trees (and for those who know, that's not typically possible).

Rivers still cause a problem for me in providing for different level "depths". While they look good, there just hasn't seemed to be a way to make the different depths readily apparent on them. The rivers themselves come from Monday Knight Productions, as latex strips of, well, river. They can be mounted on the hexes, painted, flocked, and eventually covered in the "Realistic Water" product from Woodland Scenics. I tint the "water" blue, because it comes in clear. The blue isn't quite as realistic, but it stands out better.

This post gives some ideas about how the terrain can be built and where you can get some of the supplies. I'll post some specific instructions about actual construction at a later time.

Welcome!

2009-05-10T13:03:00.000-04:00

Okay, while I graduated with a degree in Computer Science, I pretty much left that behind me, so this is my first attempt at a blog. Perhaps I'll delve into HTML and Javascript at some point to pretty things up a bit, but that's clearly for later. First and foremost, I wanted to put a place where I could collect pictures of my painting and modeling for Battletech to share and receive information from others about this hobby. The few pictures already here are some of my older work, and I'm still working on trying to become a better photographer, which is essential in taking pictures of objects basically only a couple of inches long!

I welcome others to post pictures of their work, with really the desire being that they share their tips, their skills, and their encouragement for the hobby with others.